Today, we're announcing the launch of a new Menu Planner tool, which lets you create fantastic meals using our recipes and share them with your friends and family

During the week, when I'm just cooking for myself, it's always fun to grab a recipe, get inspired, make some tweaks, and hit the kitchen to put dinner on the table.

But when it’s the holidays or the weekend? I love planning a menu.

Sadly, menu planning can get complicated, fast. First, you need to figure out a theme. Are you doing a weeknight holiday party? Are you celebrating the release of Star Wars? Or a super fun pizza party? Then you have to account for special requests, like how Edna hates spicy food and Bill is avoiding gluten. And finally, there’s timing. After all, you only have one oven. And maybe four burners. And not all the time in the world.

With our new Menu Planner — which launches today — you’ll be able to effortlessly plan multi-course menus with just a few clicks. It’s super easy. Just log in. Search Epicurious for recipes you love. Add them to your menu. Go to the menu creation page and get to work! You can name your menu and add courses, rearrange the recipes, and then share your creation with the world over social media or email. (Don’t worry, we’ve got more detailed instructions right here.)

Everything you create will get saved to your account, so not only is this a fun way to invite friends to come over for a dinner party, it’s a great way to keep track of what you’ve served friends and family over the years. (You can even use courses to plan what you want to cook for the week!) No more scraps of paper tucked into cookbooks or emailing the entire world with links to recipes. Now you can just send ‘em one link — to a beautiful-looking menu you created yourself.

Cool, right?

We want to see what you can do with this new feature, so we’re holding a contest to honor the best ones we get. Impress our editorial staff with your incredible menu creation skills and you could win a set of our best-selling Epicurious cookware, which is only available at JCPenney. We’re giving away five sets, so there are plenty of chances to win. You can enter here.